A symposium on landscape and literature, held in Haworth on 6 October 2012 as part of my residency with the Watershed Landscape Project

Moonrise, Haworth Moor

The programme:

• Professor David Atkinson of Hull University introduced humanistic geography in relation to Jay Appleton’s habitat theories

• Professor Simon Dentith of Reading University considered the role of moors and heaths in English novels and poems

• Artist Rebecca Chesney described her Brontë Weather Project, Hope’s Whisper that was shown at the Brontë Parsonage Museum

• Simon Armitage discussed the Stanza Stones project and his new book Walking Home – Travels with a troubador on the Pennine Way

• 4 members of Whitestone Arts Company – Judith Adams, Simon Warner, Stacey Johnstone and Christopher Keech – presented walking and writing as mixed media performance

• Stephen Carver of the Wildland Research Institute introduced new methods of defining, identifying and mapping wilderness

• Painter and printmaker Carry Akroyd documented her extensive engagement with the poetry of John Clare, and sang a song

• Writer and historian Steven Wood brought to life the history of settlement on Haworth Moor

• William Varley of West Yorkshire Geology Trust led a walk to Penistone Hill quarries to see prehistoric fossils, industrial archaeology and public sculpture

The symposium was organized by Simon Warner with Jenna Holmes, Arts Officer at Brontë Parsonage Museum, and Robin Gray & Anna Carter of Pennine Prospects for the Heritage Lottery funded Watershed Landscape Project

Rebecca Chesney
Photo: Tim Smith

Simon Armitage and Simon Warner
Photo: Tim Smith

William Varley’s geological walk at Dimples Quarry
Photo: Tim Smith